This is a follow-up on the short term results comparing the Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) , Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.B).I wrote a series of stories about why I thought WMB would outperform the other more popular stocks and two weeks is not much of a test unless you have been trading on my suggestions instead of investing.
The final post was Serious Money: Better than Apple, Google, Microsoft & Berkshire Hathaway, Part 5 if anyone cares to go back and review that.
Williams has outperformed the other stocks by a substantial amount so far.
In Alphabetical order from the original story
- Apple(AAPL): $123.90, 35.5% off its high of $192.24
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): $2910, 38% off its high of $4700
- Google (GOOG): $389.49, 35.3% off its high of $602.45
- Microsoft (MSFT): $20.91, 34.9% off its high of 32.10
- Williams Companies (WMB): $13.77, 66.2% off its high of $40.75
In order of highest percentage gain:
- Williams Companies (WMB): $13.77 to $16.16 for a 17.36% gain
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): from $2,910 to $3,132 for a 7.63% gain
- Google (GOOG): from $389.49 to $407.33 for a 4.58% gain
- Apple(AAPL): from $123.90 to $129.19 for a 4.27% gain
- Microsoft (MSFT): from $20.91 to $19.42 for a 7.13% loss
Going forward, I still like the Williams Co. better even from this level. All of the other companies have much more to prove every quarter and must keep inventing and competing. Williams has less competition and does not need to do much at all except to keep doing what they are already doing; it"s a much easier task. To some degree that principle has established the current order of returns. I hope to revisit this story sometime in July after Q2 reporting.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own WMB and BRK.B.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-12-2009 @ 9:50AM
Beltway Greg said...
Sheldon, you're so sanctimonious, smart, erudite, salacious well now your little stock picking exercise has been dashed on the sea rocks beneath the precipice upon which it so bravely stood because now my friend it has been revealed that the IPhone is going to go into South Dakota so take that Pre, take that RIMM. S-o-u-t-h D-a-k-o-t-a. Take some pictures of the Black Footed Ferrets for me folks.
5-12-2009 @ 10:45AM
Sheldon L said...
Greg your so up on everything (and your vocabulary is to copious for my diminutive comprehension)
AT&T's entry to S. Dakota will ring in iPhone
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090512/NEWS/905120306/1001/rss01/AT&T+s+entry+to+S.+Dakota+will+ring+in+iPhone
5-13-2009 @ 8:52AM
Beltway Greg said...
Make fun of me. That hurts but the public pain and trauma that you've visited upon me is more than mollified by the increase in potential market share that is the vibrant, progressive population of South Dakota. As of 2008 the US census bureau counts 804,194 fine upstanding folks as citizens of this great state. That represents an increase of 6.5% during the 2000-2008 time period. Oddly, South Dakota has outperformed the financial indices during this period which means that if we could've purchased calls on population growth we would've won big.
Somebody call somebody and alert the
boys at Goldman that a new, new thing exists. Instead of insuring crop yields we need to securitize population growth and sell it to the folks in Iceland who are in need of a little economic stimulus. And if you're interested, the home of the Ambassador of Iceland is for sale here in DC. Price? A cool $5.4 million give or take a few. I hear that the place is in need of a bit of updating, sort of like Iceland I guess. Nevertheless, see you in the Black Hills and don't forget that IPhone.
Long, strong, though occasionally short like today for instance. Hey, it can't go up everyday. And if Apple is added to the Dow and enters China, standby space cadets.
5-13-2009 @ 9:45AM
Beltway Greg said...
Head fake. Covered early. The reaction to the retail number way overdone and the ferts are on fire.
5-13-2009 @ 11:52AM
Sheldon L said...
Greg,
Just wait until the folks in S.D. track you down on their new iPhones. You better find a good filter or tell at&t to block that area code entirely.